Evaluation of prenatal diagnosis of cleft lip with or without cleft palate and cleft palate by ultrasound: experience from 20 European registries. EUROSCAN study group.

Ultrasound scans in the mid-trimester of pregnancy are now a routine part of antenatal care in most European countries. Using data from registries of congenital anomalies a study was undertaken in Europe. The objective of the study was to evaluate prenatal detection of cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL(P)) and cleft palate (CP). All CL(P) and CPs suspected prenatally and identified at birth in the period 1996-98 were registered from 20 Congenital Malformation Registers from the following European countries: Austria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK, Ukraine. These registries followed the same methodology. A total of 709,027 births were covered; 7758 cases with congenital malformations were registered. Included in the study were 751 cases reported with facial clefts: 553 CL(P) and 198 CP. The prenatal diagnosis by transabdominal ultrasound of CL(P) was made in 65/366 cases with an isolated malformation, in 32/62 cases with chromosomal anomaly, in 30/89 cases with multiple malformations and in 21/36 syndromic cases. The prenatal diagnosis of CP was made in 13/198 cases. One hundred pregnancies were terminated (13%); in 97 of these the cleft was associated with other malformations.

Dynamics in Thompson's group F

We describe an explicit relationship between strand diagrams and piecewise-linear functions for elements of Thompson’s group F. Using this correspondence, we investigate the dynamics of elements of F, and we show that conjugacy of one-bump functions can be described by a Mather-type invariant.

Surfactant protein-D and exposure to bioaerosols in wastewater and garbage workers.

PURPOSE: Bioaerosols and their constituents, such as endotoxins, are capable of causing an inflammatory reaction at the level of the lung-blood barrier, which becomes more permeable. Thus, it was hypothesized that occupational exposure to bioaerosols can increase leakage of surfactant protein-D (SP-D), a lung-specific protein, into the bloodstream. METHODS: SP-D was determined by ELISA in 316 wastewater workers, 67 garbage collectors, and 395 control subjects. Exposure was assessed with four interview-based indicators and by preliminary endotoxin measurements using the Limulus amoebocyte lysate assay. Influence of exposure on serum SP-D was assessed by multiple linear regression considering smoking, glomerular function, lung diseases, obesity, and other confounders. RESULTS: Overall, mean exposure levels to endotoxins were below 100 EU/m(3). However, special tasks of wastewater workers caused higher endotoxin exposure. SP-D concentration was slightly increased in this occupational group and associated with the occurrence of splashes and contact to raw sewage. No effect was found in garbage collectors. Smoking increased serum SP-D. No clinically relevant correlation between spirometry results and SP-D concentrations appeared. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the hypothesis that inhalation of bioaerosols, even at low concentrations, has a subclinical effect on the lung-blood barrier, the permeability of which increases without associated spirometric changes.

Mecanismes de reacció de sistemes catalítics amb èmfasi en carbens de Fischer i quantificació de l'aromaticitat en petites molècules inorgàniques cícliques i planes.

El tema principal del treball és sobre l'estudi teòric de l'estructura i reactivitat en carbens de Fischer de la forma (CO)5Cr=C(X)R (X= OH, NH2, OMe, NMe2 i R= CHCH2 i Ph). Particularment, el nostre interès va sorgir del tipus de reaccions de cicloadicció que donen lloc a la síntesi de productes naturals i fàrmacs de gran valor afegit. Hem estudiat els mecanismes de reacció dels casos més comuns de cicloanul•lació: la reacció de benzanul•lació de Dötz i ciclopentanulacions que es troben en competència amb el primer cas, derivats de l'inserció de acetilè i fenilacetilè. En l'últim pas de les reaccions que comporten la formació d'un sistema de més d'un anell, hi tenim una migració del complex metàl•lic de crom d'un extrem a un altre anomenat com rearranjament haptotròpic. Aleshores, hem investigat sobre els mecanismes de migració haptotròpica de Cr(CO)3 sobre hidrocarburs aromàtics policíclics analitzant l'efecte de la mida i la curvatura del sistema així com la complexació d'un segon fragment metàl•lic a la manera de coordinació als anells. D'una altre banda, vam estudiar l'aromaticitat en 54 cúmuls cíclics de molecules inorgàniques mitjançant metodologia desenvolupada al nostre grup de recerca i altres. Vam proposar la tècnica del scan-NICS com nova mesura quantitativa d'aromaticitat i reportar l'escassa correlació entre els distints índexs d'aromaticitat a la literatura. Finalment, com resultat de col•laboracions en estades de recerca, he desenvolupat propostes de mecanismes de reacció en sistemes catalítics de isonitrils i fosfinetà-amides i en dímers de gassos nobles.

My Group Beats Your Group: Evaluating Non-Income Inequalities

This paper proposes a new methodology, the Domination Index, to evaluate non-income inequalities between social groups such as inequalities of educational attainment, occupational status, health or subjective well-being. The Domination Index does not require specific cardinalisation assumptions, but only uses the ordinal structure of these non-income variables. We approach from an axiomatic perspective and show that a set of desirable properties for a group inequality measure when the variable of interest is ordinal, characterizes the Domination Index up to a positive scalar transformation. Moreover we make use of the Domination Index to explore the relation between inequality and segregation and show how these two concepts are related theoretically.

Radiolarian biostratigraphic evidence for a Late Jurassic age of the El Tambor group ophiolites (Guatemala)

We present a radiolarian biostratigraphic study of the metacherts of the El Tambor Group ophiolites (South Motagua Unit), Guatemala. The ophiolite sequence comprises MOR pillow metabasalts, massive metabasalts, metacherts and micaschists. The age of the studied metacherts is referable to the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian). The radiolarian assemblage described in this paper is the first Jurassic finding in the ophiolitic MOR succession of the Motagua zone and represents a valuable tool to constrain the geodynamic evolution of the Caribbean area. A review of the ages of Jurassic rocks associated with the ophiolites from the Caribbean area is also reported.

Income stratification and between-group inequality

The paper demonstrates that the ratio of the Yitzhaki (1994) to the conventional measure of between-group inequality is in general equal to one minus twice the weighted average probability that a random member of a richer (on average) group is poorer than a random member of a poorer (on average) group, and may therefore be interpreted as an index of stratification in its own right.

Secondary contact zones and hybridizations: the case of the lesser white-toothed shrew (Crocidura suaveolens group, Soricidae)

In the present study, we analyzed 58 samples of the lesser white-toothed shrew group (Crocidura suaveolens) from eastern Europe and Turkey, where, according to previous publications, three different mitochondrial and nuclear lineages are present. We sequenced 799 bp of the nuclear BRCA1 gene and 400 bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene to: (1) determine a potential contact zone between the lineages; (2) detect hybridizations and introgressions between them; and (3) comment on the level of reproductive isolation of the different lineages. We revealed two zones of hybridization in Turkey, of which the first occurred west of the Bosphorus Straits (three hybrids) and the second in Anatolia (twelve hybrids). In the latter, the nuclear markers revealed a large zone of hybridization, of approximately 600 km. It also revealed that hybrids of first, second, and later generations are present within the populations, and therefore that the reproductive isolation between the different lineages is weak.

The loop group and the cobar construction

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Detecting and measuring deprivation in primary care: development, reliability and validity of a self-reported questionnaire: the DiPCare-Q.

OBJECTIVES: Advances in biopsychosocial science have underlined the importance of taking social history and life course perspective into consideration in primary care. For both clinical and research purposes, this study aims to develop and validate a standardised instrument measuring both material and social deprivation at an individual level. METHODS: We identified relevant potential questions regarding deprivation using a systematic review, structured interviews, focus group interviews and a think-aloud approach. Item response theory analysis was then used to reduce the length of the 38-item questionnaire and derive the deprivation in primary care questionnaire (DiPCare-Q) index using data obtained from a random sample of 200 patients during their planned visits to an ambulatory general internal medicine clinic. Patients completed the questionnaire a second time over the phone 3 days later to enable us to assess reliability. Content validity of the DiPCare-Q was then assessed by 17 general practitioners. Psychometric properties and validity of the final instrument were investigated in a second set of patients. The DiPCare-Q was administered to a random sample of 1898 patients attending one of 47 different private primary care practices in western Switzerland along with questions on subjective social status, education, source of income, welfare status and subjective poverty. RESULTS: Deprivation was defined in three distinct dimensions: material (eight items), social (five items) and health deprivation (three items). Item consistency was high in both the derivation (Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR20) =0.827) and the validation set (KR20 =0.778). The DiPCare-Q index was reliable (interclass correlation coefficients=0.847) and was correlated to subjective social status (r(s)=-0.539). CONCLUSION: The DiPCare-Q is a rapid, reliable and validated instrument that may prove useful for measuring both material and social deprivation in primary care.

Ultrastructure of Giardia duodenalis trophozoites group from hamster: some relevant aspects

Throphozoites of Giardia duodenalis group obtained from fragments or scratched of hamster's mucosa were examined by transission electron microscopy. The fine structure of the trophozoites are presented and comapred with those described for other animals. Some of the trophozoites present the cytoplasm full of glycogen, rough endoplasmic reticulum-like structures and homogeneous inclusions not enclosed by membranes, recognized as lipid drops, which had not been observed in Giardia from other animals. The adhesive disk is composed of a layer of microtubules, from which fibrous ribbons extend into the cytoplasm; these ribbons are linked by layer of crossbridge filaments that shows an intermediary dense band, described for the first time in this paper. The authors regard this band as the result of the cross-bridge filaments slinding in the medium region between adjacent fibrous ribbons, and suggest a contractile activity for them. The role of the adhesive disk on the trophozoite mechanism of attachment to host mucosa is also discussed.

Correlation of tumor-associated antigens MAGE, NY-ESO-1 and P53 expression with clinical and pathological relationships of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

Despite advances in the diagnosisand treatment of head and neck cancer,survival rates have not improvedover recent years. New therapeuticstrategies, including immunotherapy,are the subject of extensive research.In several types of tumors, the presenceof tumor infiltrating lymphocytes(TILs), notably CD8+ T cellsand dendritic cells, has been correlatedwith improved prognosis. Moreover,some T cells among TILs havebeen shown to kill tumor cells in vitroupon recognition of tumor-associatedantigens. Tumor associated antigensare expressed in a significant proportionof squamous cell carcinoma ofthe head and neck and apparently mayplay a role in the regulation of cancercell growth notably by inhibition ofp53 protein function in some cancers.The MAGE family CT antigens couldtherefore potentially be used as definedtargets for immunotherapy andtheir study bring new insight in tumorgrowth regulation mechanisms. Between1995 - 2005 54 patients weretreated surgically in our institution forsquamous cell carcinoma of the oralcavity. Patient and clinical data wasobtained from patient files and collectedinto a computerized database.For each patient, paraffin embeddedtumor specimens were retrieved andexpression of MAGE CT antigens,p53, NY-OESO-1 were analyzed byimmunohistochemistry. Results werethen correlated with histopathologicalparameter such as tumor depth,front invasion according to Bryne andboth, local control and disease freesurvival. MAGE-A was expressed in52% of patients. NY-ESO-1 and p53expression was found in 7% and 52%cases respectively. A higher tumordepth was significantly correlatedwith expression of MAGE-Aproteins(p = 0.03). No significant correlationcould be made between the expressionof both p53 andNY-OESO-1 andhistopathological parameters. Expressionof tumor-associated antigendid not seem to impact significantlyon patient prognosis. As does thedemonstration of p53 function inhibitionby CT antigens of MAGE family,our results suggest, that tumor associatedantigens may be implicated in tumorprogression mechanisms. Thishypothesis need further investigationto clarify the relationship betweenhost immune response and local tumorbiology.

Singular integrals on Ahlfors-David regular subsets of the Heisenberg group

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